So, we have come quite a way in our survey of world prehistory. As previously discussed, variation and elaboration in the expression of material culture (that we observed through the lens of archaeology) among human groups has increased at an ever quicker pace, especially since the beginning of the Neolithic. We have seen that in various regions around the world, the process of plant (and animal) domestication was a complex process that followed different trajectories as the result of interactions between humans and their environment at the local level. Certainly, populations incorporated agriculture into their existing subsistence economy to varying degrees—some completely, others not at all. There are a handful of modern cultures that are more-or-less hunter-gatherers, though most have been affected to some degree by modernization and globalization.

The phenomenon of humans living in larger, more-permanent, and denser populations provided the conditions for associated increases in social complexity characterized by the emergence of classes of non-food-producing members of society, such as craft specialists (skilled laborers and artisans), bureaucrats, and “elites.” Someone, or at least a small group of individuals, now had authority over others. This power had to be legitimated, either through coercion, charisma, or a combination of the two. Why else would larger number of people to build something like the ziggurat at Ur, while a small number of elites just watched?


The reconstructed ziggurat (background) at Ur, present-day Tell el-Mukayyar, Iraq


In this lesson, we will take a look at how anthropologists and archaeologists have approached studying the development of social complexity in prehistory and early history, looking at concepts like social ranking, social stratification/hierarchy, and the emergence of the state-organized societies and empires.

We also begin our exploration of specific state-level societies that developed around the edge of prehistory-history (loosely defined around the advent of writing systems, so the prehistory-history boundary varies geographically). In particular, Lesson 8 looks at the development of early states in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Aegean (the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures of the Greek islands and mainland).


View of Saqqara necropolis, including Djoser’s step pyramid (center)


Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should understand the following:


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